Building a 12-month budget plan with Futrli

Your budget is there to keep you on course with your day to day transactions so keep a close eye on it and your forecast.You’re working with your actual figures with a budget, which doesn’t allow for external factors having an impact on your figures. Your forecast will fill in the gaps.

Your business is unique so create a bespoke budget

Templates aren’t going to include everything you need to include in your own budget, so it’s important you create your own. Your business is different to every other company, so make sure you’re managing it in a unique way.Excel is a great piece of kit, but it’s not always appropriate to use it for your finances. They’re prone to errors, so setting up your budget in one could mean you’re starting on the back foot with wrong data.

Project your figures with ease

Add up all of your incoming cash. Do the same for all outgoings. This must include everything, each and every penny that went in or out over the last 12 months, such as bank statements, wages, credit card statements, utility bills, receipts and anything else that will help you figure out how much you earned and spent last year. This will make projections much easier.Now you have this data, figure out how much you expect to come into your bank account from every source you can think of. It’s time to make your future projections. Get all of this information into your forecast, and you’ll quickly see how granular forecasting in Futrli is. Because you’ve covered all bases with your incoming cash, your forecast is going to be accurate.

Keep full ownership of your business

Because you know your rent, bills and wages are the same each month, building your budget plan projections is easy. You can section these off into groups, like utilities, savings, one-off payments, etc.Remember to select your time frame, and you can see a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly view. We’ve made Futrli as customisable as possible, as it’ll help you see where your business stands at just a glance.

Track your progress

You need to check your budget regularly. Using your budget and forecast together will help you see how you’re performing. If you’ve overspent, you’ll see where you can cut back or if you need to source some extra cash. If you’ve underspent, you’ll know you have some free cash to play with or reinvest.You must remember that budgeting and forecasting together are going to help you to take full control of your business. Obtaining this granular view of the coming 12 months, based on the last year, is the best way to be operating and if you’re just starting out then get into this good habit now.